Lawsuit

April 23, 2014 | By David Zahniser and Emily Alpert Reyes, This post has been updated. See the note below for details.

Scores of people who suffered damage when the Powerhouse fire scorched stretches of northern Los Angeles County are suing the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, alleging the utility started the massive blaze and failed to properly maintain power lines and equipment. The fire destroyed dozens of homes and burned more than 30,000 acres over the course of several days last year. U.S. Forest Service officials have estimated the cost of battling the blaze at more than $16 million.

Give me a two! Give me a four! Give me an eight! Now add some zeroes at the end and a dollar sign in front! That's the cheer that five former Buffalo Bills cheerleaders may be using in New York State Supreme Court after they sued the team on Tuesday because they say they were underpaid. The suit alleges that the cheerleaders, the Buffalo Jills, are wrongly classified as independent contractors and are subjected to policies that violate the state's $8 per hour minimum wage law. The five women said they worked hundreds of hours for free at games and at mandatory public appearances at which they were subjected to groping and sexual comments.

George Zimmerman's parents are picking a court fight with Roseanne Barr. The entertainer admitted in a court filing this week that she had posted the address of Robert and Gladys Zimmerman on Twitter during the heated controversy over whether their son should have shot unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin two years ago. The Zimmermans contend that her tweet forced them to flee because media and protesters descended on their neighborhood....

An anonymous family of New Jersey atheists is asking a state judge to find that the words “under God” should be stricken from the Pledge of Allegiance. The lawsuit , filed Monday, is nearly identical to one brought in Massachusetts by an unidentified family there. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court could rule in that case any day. “Public schools should not engage in an exercise that tells students that patriotism is tied to a belief in God,” said David Niose, an attorney for the American Humanist Assn.

The attorney for the man accusing "X-Men" director Bryan Singer of sexual abuse has filed additional, similar cases against three Hollywood executives. Garth Ancier, David Neuman and Gary Goddard were named in three separate complaints, filed by attorney Jeff Herman in Hawaii, accusing them of sexually abusing Michael F. Egan III. Last week, Singer was accused in a federal lawsuit of drugging and sexually assaulting Egan in the 1990s. Ancier is a prominent television executive who has held senior positions at Fox and NBC. Neuman is a former senior Walt Disney television executive.

A controversy-riddled water district involved in a federal corruption investigation is in danger of losing its insurance, a political black eye that could have implications for the agency and its 2 million customers. The Assn. of California Water Agencies Joint Powers Insurance Authority has recommended to its board that it drop the employment liability insurance for Central Basin Municipal Water District, citing the circus-like atmosphere at the agency. The authority insures hundreds of water districts across the state, and this would be only the second time in its 35-year history that it canceled coverage for a water district.

Thousands of immigrants seeking protection in the United States have spent months in detention waiting for the government to determine whether they may have legitimate cases, even though regulations say they should receive a determination within 10 days, according to a class-action lawsuit filed Thursday. The lawsuit, which was brought by two California chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center, claims the government violated the law and needlessly spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on detention.

This post has been updated. See note below. Follow me down the rabbit hole for a moment while we discuss the case of Kimberly Erin Caselman, a Pier 1 sales associate in San Jose who loves her job and informed her boss in November that she was two months pregnant with her second child. On the recommendation of her obstetrician, Caselman, 31, also informed Pier 1 that she was not to lift any objects heavier than 15 pounds, or climb ladders. Her pregnancy is not high-risk, but that seemed prudent, and not particularly limiting.

When Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled his first budget this week, he proudly announced that he was doubling funding to fix broken sidewalks from $10 million to $20 million. There's just one problem: None of the money that was budgeted for this year has been spent so far. And it remains unclear how much of it will be used before the budget year comes to an end June 30. Any unencumbered money will be swept back into Los Angeles' general fund. City officials said they held off on sidewalk spending because of a lawsuit filed by disabled residents who assert that broken sidewalks infringe on their rights to public access.

Los Angeles County sheriff's officials are revisiting the department's policy governing when and how deputies can use physical force, in light of a court ruling last year that officers can be held liable even for actions that led up to a shooting. The daughter of Shane Hayes, a mentally ill man who was shot and killed in his home by San Diego County sheriff's deputies after brandishing a knife, filed a wrongful death suit against the department. She argued that the deputies provoked the confrontation that led to the shooting.